0
Cunning

18
Resolve

Why Shyvana

About Me

(The entire guide has been revamped! Please take a look, as there are quite a few of changes.)

I am a long time player, been around since Season 1. I've played Shyvana since her release; I love how she turns into a dragon. She is also my highest winrate both in jungle and just simply overall; you could say she's my go-to pick. She's not a mechanically difficult champion to learn, meaning she's great for beginners. She's also a good champion to push limits with, due to her innate tankiness AND damage. She does really well at all stages of the game, and if you have someone like Braum or Leona, she will really shine. Able to dive the backline with relative ease, Shyvana is perfect for all ins.

If you're a long time follower of this guide, you may have noticed that I am no longer making cooldown reduction a prioritized stat. This is due to me feeling like it was restricting my build too much. I would have to grab it from runes, meaning a loss in damage or defense, or both. And it put me on a strict build path as well, where I had to grab either Trinity Force or The Black Cleaver. While both items are decent on Shyvana, I believe they are better as luxury items, not a core. Trinity Force falls off in the late game, especially against tanks. And The Black Cleaver is far more effective once a Blade of the Ruined King and/or Titanic Hydra has been built. If I didn't grab either of those items, then I'd be lacking cooldown reduction, until a Spirit Visage was built, if at all.

I apologize to anyone who really enjoyed that build and has been waiting for an update from me, work swallowed me whole for a while now, and there wasn't much appeal to League of Legends with that stress until the Shyvana rework and Blade of the Ruined King buffs, plus the new season. For anyone still planning to ride along, I greatly appreciate it and I hope others find this new build suitable to their needs as well.

6.23 Rework

Shyvana has received a minor rework! I will give a quick rundown here, look in the abilities section for more details.

Fury of the Dragonborn - No longer gives 5/10/15/20 armor and magic resists. There is a base of 5, which increases with each elemental dragon taken by your team. Shyvana also deals 10% more physical and magical damage to dragons (this does not include Aurelion Sol).

Burnout - No change in human form. In dragon form, the AoE of the ability increases with the level of Dragon's Descent. No longer leaves a trail of Scorched Earth.

Flame Breath - In human form, the projectile will stop travel once it collides with an enemy champion. Speed of projectile decreased slightly. In dragon form, the projectile is now linear instead of a cone. Explodes upon impact, creates Scorched Earth (AoE of Scorched Earth increases with the level of Dragon's Descent). Scorched Earth deals damage based on Shyvana's level, and will persistently marked any enemies for Flame Breath's on-hit standing on it. Note, Scorched Earth now deals more damage than a max rank old Burnout, probably due to it being "immobile".

- Due to stacking health, Shyvana will be vulnerable to any health shredders, such as Vayne

- No innate sustain- No ganking power until level 6

What This Means

Shyvana's main strength is taking objectives, and being a huge AoE threat during skirmishes and teamfights. This means that in the early and mid game, you should be pushing to take Dragon and Herald of the Rift as much as possible, both for the team benefits and for the stacks of your passive, Fury of the Dragonborn. While in dragon form, Shyvana has very high damage with a moderate amount of burst, meaning she can quickly kill any carries, provided she isn't peeled off of them. It's best to pick her with a team of crowd control, such as Braum support or Gnar top. That being said, she also thrives in an uncoordinated environment, which is exactly what solo queue is, especially in the lower elos.

Her high mixed damage makes her hard to itemize to against, especially since most of it is in the form of "health damage". This means that her damage is mostly based off the enemy's health, which is what allows her to scale into the late game with only a couple of offense items (armor and magic resist do lessen the impact of her damage).

Runes

Runes

Greater Mark of Attack Speed9

Greater Seal of Scaling Health9

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist9

Greater Quintessence of Armor3

Attack speed is generally considered Shyvana's best offensive stat. With two innate on-hits, plus two or more from items, and the fact that Fury is considered an on-hit, plus Twin Bite's cooldown is reduced by auto-attacks... well it becomes pretty clear why this stat is a must have. For this particular rune set-up, I honestly cannot recommend anything else.

Fairly standard on most rune pages, these will greatly help with surviving against mages/tanks and any random magic damage from AD champions. These are definitely meant to benefit you more in the early to mid game, as they give flat numbers. If you think that AP might be a problem, then instead use 9x Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist - I personally prefer flat because a higher magic resist in the early game is much better than nine extra points later. Against a full AD team? Then consider using either 9x Greater Glyph of Attack Speed or 9x Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction. The attack speed is always an excellent stat on Shyvana, thanks to all the on-hits she generally has. Cooldown reduction will increase the uptime of Burnout and Flame Breath's mark.

To help with tanking that first jungle clear. And any attack damage champion. And early turret shots. And minions. The highest possible source of flat armmor, these will make you surprisingly tanky. If you truly want to gear up for the late game, then Greater Quintessence of Scaling Armor is an option. But remember, you'll be behind on armor til level 12.

Runes

Greater Mark of Attack Damage9

Greater Seal of Armor4

Greater Seal of Scaling Health5

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist9

Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed3

Closer to the standard rune page for Shyvana, this set up features a bit more damage but less attack speed and far less defense. The Greater Mark of Attack Damage helps with clearing jungle camps faster, and increases early game damage a bit more, but gives half the health and a third of the armor.

Masteries

As the name suggests, this rune page is more for being aggressive early, with Fresh Blood and Insight being the biggest contributors. Fresh Blood will add more damage to the first attack on an enemy champion, while Insight will reduce the cooldowns of Exhaust and Smite, allowing for more ganks and duels, and possibly more Dragon control as well. The nice thing about Insight is that it's good all game, as using Exhaust on the carries is never a bad idea and you always want to have control over Dragon and Baron.

As you may have noticed, this build could be used with the Courage of the Colossus keystone. So why aren't we? The answer is simple: Shyvana only has one form of hard crowd control, and it is unreliable due to the hitbox. If you miss the knockback on Dragon's Descent (which happens a lot), you get no keystone whatsoever til your next attempt. You also have no keystone til level 6. Grasp of the Undying is active all game, and isn't reliant on landing your sole knockback. Just auto attacks.

Summoner Spells

These should be the spells you take as jungle Shyvana. Since she has no crowd control whatsoever til level 6, Exhaust will help combat this issue. I personally never take Flash due to Dragon's Descent almost always being up. ALWAYS TAKE Smite.

Why Exhaust? Shyvana has no reliable crowd control built into her kit. As a jungler, you really should try ganking, as even just one gank might be all your laner needs. Exhaust brings SO MUCH to ganks- the afflicted target has 30% reduced movement and attack speed, resistances reduced by 10, and 40% reduced damage for 2.5 seconds. Either you'll force a flash (giving you and your laner a chance to kill them during the cooldown), or simply kill the enemy outright. Late game, this is an excellent spell to throw down on their carry- this can save your carries, or just allow your team to completely dominate teamfights.

Lifesaving Exhaust

Other Summoners to Consider

A standard grab on any champion- I'd take this if you're unfamiliar with Shyvana or just have a general preference to it. It can help you escape, initiate or secure a kill.

A good grab for when you're the designated splitpusher. Also allows for teleport ganks, which can be devasting.

Ghost can greatly increase your chasing potential... or makes a decent GTFO button, in cases of emergency. Some carry junglers grab this, such as Master Yi or Udyr.

You want the kills. Also, your ganks will be lackluster, especially if your laner has no crowd control. On the other hand, if you decide on a counterjungle path, this summoner will strike fear into the other jungler's heart.

Items

Starting Items

x3
Typical start for a jungler. Use the Refillable Potion to heal you up while clearing. Warding Totem is very helpful in preventing invades and safeguarding your jungle and laners; try to use it whenever you have a ward up, don't let the charges sit.

When you hit level 9, try to remember to upgrade to Farsight Orb. Why? Lower cooldown on the active, there is no limit to how many of the little wards you can put out, and they don't have a time limit. It'll grant you far more vision than a Warding Totem will, plus it's safer when trying to scout bushes and objectives.

Sometimes you may need to grab a Sweeping Lens instead. This could be due to stealth champions, or possibly a Teemo and his traps. Remember, you can pop Sweeping Lens before entering a bush, and it'll disable all traps and wards. For traps, this means you can run right through them without them triggering, resulting in no damage taken. For wards, this means you will not be seen as you run by, potentially increasing your ganking power. If you do grab Sweeping Lens, then I highly recommend upgrading it to Oracle Alteration as it'll cast directly around you and follows you. This allows you to cover more ground and possibly clear out more wards and/or have a safer escape from traps. Also get a Tracker's Knife, as you still need to place wards.

Your Jungle Item

Stalker's Blade is good for chasing and ganks. When Smited, the target will be slowed while you gain movespeed. And since the damage is instant, it can be useful in increasing your burst power. A very good go-to option in most games.

This is an extremely strong pick, especially against immobile teams (or your team has tons of cc). The true damage plus damage reduction will turn you into a dueling monster, winning pretty much every fight. Late game, it enables you to force carries out of the fight. Works well with both Enchantment: Cinderhulk and Enchantment: Bloodrazor.

Enchantment: Cinderhulk is basically Sunfire Cape (which doesn't stack, by the way), though it is weaker in the early game. Definitely meant for tanking and soaking up the damage, since it has a scaling health stat, which will work great with Greater Seal of Scaling Health and Titanic Hydra. This jungle enchant when used with Titanic Hydra will put a strong emphasis on your AoE damage, enabling you to sit in the middle of a fight for a long time and damage everyone around you.

Enchantment: Bloodrazor is the tank shredder item. With it dealing 4% of the target's maximum health on-hit, this item works perfectly with Flame Breath. The item itself is not too different from Blade of the Ruined King, which I happen to prefer. The latter provides lifesteal and has more of an early game presence due to the AD and slow.

Build Order

I highly suggest completing your first non-jungle item before anything else. Why? The bonuses you get from your jungle enchantment feel much more impactful once completed with another item - especially since Enchantment: Cinderhulk scales off of your maximum health. With a Titanic Hydra and your 9x Greater Seal of Scaling Health, you will very close to 3000 health with just your core. At level 18, all of this plus a Dead Man's Plate (or any other item equal in health), will put you around 4000 health.

Defense

Thornmail gives 100 armor, the highest amount of armor any item can give. The passive makes it so it's nearly impossible for any adc to deal with you properly; they'll basically need full items to do so. Plus, as of patch 5.16, this item now scales off of your armor stat, meaning any on-hit centric champions will suffer as well (such as Vayne or Kog'Maw). I would grab this if there are multiple adc-type champions, ranged or melee- Fiora, Master Yi, and Yasuo are just some examples of melee adc.

When that adc is becoming a problem and you just can't simply run at them and kill, I'd say Randuin's Omen is the way to go. It gives you a huge chunk of health, lots of armor, a fantastic active for teamfights (good for both chasing and peeling... and escapes), and a passive that will reduce any attacker's attack speed, plus damage reduction from critical strikes. This is the obvious pure tank armor item, and will work well in just about any game, since there will almost always be an adc.

Another strong choice for armor, Dead Man's Plate bring some much needed utility to the table. Armor, health, a move speed modifier based on stacks, a potential slow, and some extra damage. The move speed modifier actually helps with chasing quite a bit, plus you could have a slow when you catch up to your target, and some extra damage. While not as teamfight centric, Dead Man's Plate will help with Shyvana's greatest weakness, which is being kited.

A great choice for MR, this will increase any sort of healing you have; this does apply to the heal from Blade of the Ruined King and any passive health regen, such as Warmog's Armor. It also has 10% cooldown reduction and is fairly cheap.

Another good choice for magic resist, this gives you a spellshield, good for stopping burst or maybe even initiating more freely. It has more magic resist than Spirit Visage, but less health.

Zz'Rot Portal is a solid all-around defense item. While it lacks health, it does have both armor and magic resist, meaning it can be a good grab after Titanic Hydra. The passive move speed near allied/fallen turrets is good while roaming, and the portal active has a multitude of uses. Drop it in a lane to slow push a lane, or set it next to your nexus turrets to help defend. You can also buy this item, drop the portal, and then sell it, kind of like Guardian Angel.

A large chunk of health, supreme out of combat healing, and cooldown reduction makes Warmog's Armor a good buy for Shyvana. Just like with any other champion, this item will allow Shyvana to take a front load of burst, and probably survive, as well as less recalls due to the passive.

Guardian Angel is a good grab in many games, thanks to its well rounded resists and passives. When a Shyvana buys this item, it's a sign that she intends to carry. A possible buy right after your core, or possibly in place of magic resist, this will work well with all the health we build. It also places a target on Shyvana's head. Either the enemy team will focus you down (twice), which gives your team time to demolish them, or the enemy simply ingores you, hoping that you won't run rampant.

You get this item for two reasons - the large chunk of health, and for the on-hit slow. It lacks other defenses, and does not have a lot of damage, so I'd only consider it if you're somehow on a team with absolutely no peel.

Offense

Titanic Hydra is an excellent item for asserting your dominance throughout the early and mid game. The on-hit scales off of your health. The active is an additional massive burst that scales off of your maximum health; plus since it's considered an auto-attack enhancement, it'll proc all on-hits as well. This item can severely burst down the enemy carries, and can quickly force skirmishes into the team's favor. The health from the item is also helpful with surviving any enemy encounters.

Blade of the Ruined King is fantastic for shredding tanks late game, while still dealing a substantial amount to damage to carries. It also emphasizes Shyvana's dueling capabilities, making her near impossible to fight with a Skirmisher's Sabre and/or Exhaust. The active is very useful as well while chasing (or running away), since it's a move speed steal. It also works great as a standalone damage item, hence why I recommend building it first over everything else - because in some games, you will not be able to get that Titanic Hydra.

A solid choice for more damage and resists. Wit's End will shred the enemy's magic resist, which will then increase the damage from Burnout and Flame Breath. It will also increase the damage from Thornmail and Enchantment: Cinderhulk, along with Wit's End itself, as all deal magic damage. With the attack speed and stacking magic resist and it being cheap, this is a good item to consider in any game.

It's been a while, but Trinity Force has managed to find its way back into this guide. Patch 6.11 saw the removal of the critical chance, but a massive increase in the attack speed and cooldown reduction. This makes it far more ideal for a Shyvana player, since two of her best offensive stats are attack speed and cooldown reduction. Attack speed will work great with Enchantment: Bloodrazor, enabling you to quickly chew through tanks, while the cooldown reduction will give frequent use of the Spellblade passive, which does proc, in an AoE, on her Twin Bite. This gives you the power to quickly kill the enemy carries. Plus the Rage passive is good for sticking onto those carries you're trying to eliminate. With a minimal cost for the mana, this item is worth the gold.

Boots

These will probably be your go-to boots in about 90% of your games. They shine the best when you're against lots of magic damage and crowd control. They also work well with the Resolve masteries, due to the fact you get Swiftness , allowing you to achieve higher tenacity.

If a team is running three AD champs, then these will be much better than Mercury's Treads. The damage reduction passive is great against any adc, and is also useful against many casters as well, since they still occasionally bonk you. Even against a fair amount of crowd control, these seem more beneficial if the majority of the enemy team is AD; Ninja Tabi gives you a quick and noticeable tank boost.

Don't forget to ward!!!

Abilities

Ability Sequence

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

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13

14

15

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18

For every elemental dragon your team take, Dragonborn gives Shyvana an extra 5 armor and magic resist. With the base 5, it is possible to have up to 30 bonus armor and magic resist, if your team manages to take every dragon right as they spawn. This passive also increases all physical and magical damage dealt to dragons (does not include Aurelion Sol).

When a max rank Twin Bite is activated, Shyvana deals two autos worth of damage in one attack. It also applies all on-hit effects twice (including lifesteal), meaning when used while an enemy is marked with Flame Breath, Shyvana will deal damage equal to 5% of their maximum health. This ability makes Shyvana syngerize with on-hit effects extremely well, which is why Blade of the Ruined King and Titanic Hydra are so good on her. It's also an auto-reset, meaning if used immediately after an auto-attack, Shyvana will attack again, despite her current attack speed. This means she can take out Stealth Wards in two hits before they disappear. We max this second for the reduced cooldown and doubled damage.

Shyvana's bread and butter skill, Burnout will always be maxed out first. When activated, the ability gives movespeed, and damages anything around her for up to 7 seconds. It also deals a portion of the damage on-hit to anything within the AoE. In dragon form, the AoE of Burnout increases with rank, emphasizing her threat as an AoE monster.

A one-point wonder; Flame Breath is a linear skillshot that marks the first champion hit. The mark will cause Shyvana to deal 2.5% of the target's maximum health in magic damage. In dragon form, the projectile explodes on impact, leaving an AoE of Scorched Earth. This deals damage based on Shyvana's level, and persistently marks all enemies within for the on-hit. When taking objectives such as dragon, I highly recommend popping into dragon form and using Flame Breath as much as possible. The Scorched Earth greatly increases the uptime of the mark, speeding up Shyvana's objective control. At max rank, the uptime of the mark is 100%, provided the target stays within the AoE. Also, the damage of Scorched Earth is fairly strong; remember this while trying to burst down the carries.

Upon using Dragon's Descent, you turn into a mighty dragon (actually, it's a wyvern), spewing fire everywhere and causing chaos. Your ultimate has a small knockback, but also has a really weird hit box. So practice hitting it right! You also gain health for the duration of Dragon's Descent, making it a pseudo heal. While performing the dash, Shyvana is unstoppable; try using your ultimate to dodge crucial crowd control, such as Vayne's Condemn. Use your ultimate during ganks to push the enemy towards your laners, or to interupt a channeled ability (like Katarina's Death Lotus).

The Combo

Shyvana's combo isn't all that hard to pull off, and she basically has one. Pre-6, activate Burnout, use Stalker's Blade to slow enemy down, throw a Flame Breath, auto-attack immediately followed up by Twin Bite (remember, Twin Bite is an auto reset). If you have Titanic Hydra, then pop the active last, as it is an auto reset. I generally use Blade of the Ruined King's last of all, since the 10% maximum health damage is more effective when the target is low health (no, it is not an execute, but the damage is far more noticeable the more health they're missing).

Once you gain Dragon's Descent, I highly recommend only fighting when it's ready. The dash itself does a bit of damage, has a small displace, increases your tankiness, and increases your burst. This is probably the most flexible of your abilities, where you can use it to catch up, escape, knock the enemy into some good crowd control, or simply to close the gap against an immobile champ.

When activating Flame Breath in dragon form, you can control where the projectile explodes a bit, giving you a chance to lead your shot. In all honesty, I usually throw it at max range, as it will always explode on the first champion hit. While this may mean you overshoot a few times, I found undershooting to be a much bigger occurrence. Do try to hit the impact though, as that with the projectile and the first tick of Scorched Earth does a base of 220 damage with a rank 1 Flame Breath.

Gameplay

Your First Clear

Your first jungle clear is actually very important. Going the wrong route can force you to back much sooner than planned, which could put you behind. If you back and are unable to get your Smite upgrade, you end up missing out on a lot of gold. The upgrade also gives you better sustain and damage against the camps, which means having your upgrade enables you to clear faster and keep on clearing for longer.

Okay, now the routes!

Aggressive Route
Start at the red brambleback, Smite for the heal. Move onto krugs, then take the rift scuttler. This will get you level 3 relatively quick, and you can go gank top or bot (depending on which side you are on) while the laners are still level 2. Your main benefit to this early of a gank is your damage, and will work out best if your laner has their crowd control ready.

A note - grabbing rift scuttler that early does put you at risk, since if the enemy jungler decides they want it as well, you could be in for a duel. Be ready to run if their laners show up as well. Otherwise, with Exhaust, you can win most early duels, either killing them or forcing a Flash.

A quick side note about Rift Scuttler - remember to grab it as much as you can. It gives a small speed shrine, and what is even more important, vision. While the area isn't as big as a ward, the vision is still of course helpful with spotting roaming enemies.

Rift Herald

First off, he will dance with you. You are obligated in each and every single game to do this. Simply stand in front of him and dance.

The Rift Herald buff is only obtainable by one person, so I'd advise giving it to your top laner. It gives 5% damage reduction when no allied champions are near, and has a stacking mechanic similar to Luden's Echo or Statikk Shiv. This damage does work on towers. It lasts for 20 minutes, and will persist through death. Once defeated, the Rift Herald will not respawn. Basically, it's a "win lane" buff for your top laner. Do try to get it in as many games as possible, because a lane that wins on its own is always great for a jungler.

It is possible to solo the Rift Herald as Shyvana. Using Dragon's Descent and making sure your Blade of the Ruined King is completed will greatly help with this task. However, as it does take a while to kill, the buff is not worth a death anywhere on the map. Ensure that your laners are safe before attempting to solo.

Dragon

With patch 6.9, Dragon now spawns with different elements, all giving perks to different stats. The Mountain Drake will give permanent true damage to Epic Monsters (like Dragon, Rift Herald and Baron), and to towers as well. Infernal Drake increases your team's AP and AD. Cloud Drake gives out of combat move speed. And Ocean Drake will restore your team's health and mana at set intervals. Each of these buffs can stack up to three times.

After 35 minutes, Elemental Dragons will no longer respawn. Instead, there will be an Elder Dragon. Once slain, he will increase the effects from the Elemental Dragons by 50% for 120 seconds, along with 45 (+45 per stack of Elemental Drake buff) burn damage - this procs on both basic attacks and abilities. The burn lasts for 3 seconds. This can turn into a very strong buff for your team, so do your best to maintain dragon control. This means wards and communication, along with eyeing the timer. Don't forget you can now ping the timer as well; communication is always key.

The Elemental Dragons can be soloed as early as level 4 with a couple of daggers (with the Mountain Drake being the easiest while Cloud is the most difficult). I would recommend waiting til level 6 however, as the damage from Flame Breath in dragon form is extremely potent. Or if you'd rather, you can save your ultimate to escape. Either way, it is simply safer and faster to wait til level 6.

Baron

The Baron Nashor spawns at twenty minutes, and when slain, gives the whole team 300 gold and whoever is alive a three minute buff. This buff will increase the AD and AP of you and your allies, and empowers recall to take much less time to cast. It also increases the strength of nearby minions, while greatly increasing the range of canon minions. The obvious use of this buff is to push down turrets, but it can also be good for defending your own base.

Baron Nashor can also be soloed by a Shyvana, though it too takes a long time, and requires the player to move around more and have sufficient resistances and sustain ( Baron Nashor shreds his target's armor and magic resist), while taking 50% less damage. Be certain you can do this safely, as a failed attempt can result in the enemy taking it for themselves.

Early Game

Shyvana's goal during the early game is pretty simple - outlevel the enemy and complete the core build as quickly as possible. Due to the jungle camps having a long respawn timer, one cannot simply "afk farm" anymore. You need to gank, push objectives, invade the enemy jungle. And believe it or not, the single most useful item in doing any of this are wards, whether with a Control Ward (good for taking objectives or ensuring a good gank), or using your Warding Totem to scout the enemy jungle.

Pre-6, your ganks are going to be a bit lackluster, especially if Exhaust and/or Stalker's Blade is on cooldown. Ally lanes with hard crowd control (such as stuns or snares) will be your best bet for ganking, while any lane with no crowd control will be difficult at best. If the enemy has crowd control and/or escapes and your laner does not, I would suggest leaving that lane alone, as it will be a waste of time.

Alternatively, Shyvana can also counter jungle very well. With the long timers on camps, depriving the enemy of their gold can be punishing, as they likely won't be able to gank due to being underleveled and underfarmed. If you plan on invading often, then I would recommend taking Skirmisher's Sabre instead, as it gives your auto-attacks a true damage DoT, and reduces the target's damage by 20%. Invading the enemy jungle means you will likely run into the enemy themself; it's best to be prepared.

Mid to Late Game

At this point in the game, you should have a few dragons under your belt and hopefully a tower or two as well. Move as a team, push lanes together. If you have a dedicated split pusher, ensure that their Teleport is ready. If you are the splitter, never do so without Teleport, as Shyvana cannot reach a 4v5 fast enough for a turnaround. When splitting, keep all jungle entrances warded and pay attention to that mini map. Focus on clearing waves as quickly as possible, and only attack the tower when close enough. If not the splitter, help them out by pressuring elsewhere, and keeping an eye on the mini map. Ping them of any danger coming their way.

Continue securing those dragons and towers. While going full rambo certainly has its merits, playing safe is always good. Use your ultimate to peel for your carries, fight on top of them. While catching out the enemy is ideal, you must keep your damage alive, even if that means you. As the game gets longer, it becomes even more important to play more and more safely. Do not fight if Dragon's Descent is on cooldown, try to save Exhaust for the carries. Be as big of a distraction as possible so that your allies can do their work.

While Shyvana is unstoppable with Dragon's Descent, it should still be used as a follow-up to a fellow initiator. Shyvana is not a true tank, she lacks the crowd control and sustain/shields to be one. She is a juggernaut, with one way in. If you are using your ultimate to get into a fight, be ready to stay there, and truly commit yourself.

And last but not least, when you're knocking on their nexus door, end the game. Do not try to farm your KDA. Not only is it rude, but you can lose the game by goofing off.

Fin

I hope you enjoyed going over my guide! This is my only guide (coding so hard), so please leave a comment- praise and critique are both welcome and appreciated!

Banners and final image above are all done by me :D Baron, Rift Herald and Elder Dragon images are borrowed from the wiki.

UPDATES

12/31/2016: Removed Cleaver and Rageblade from the second build sheet.
12/29/2016: Altered runes to give better stats (thanks to Rai***oonscar!), added a note to masteries about why there is no use of CotC.
12/16/2016: Massive revamp of the guide, including details about Shyvana's rework.
6/5/2016: Updated guide for 6.11
5/28/2016: Fixed note for Titanic Hydra.
5/27/2016: Changed runes and masteries. Should be more efficient now. Thank you @VaporaDark.
5/26/2016: Added a video about Hunter's Talisman (items section). And a note about Rift Scuttler (gameplay section).
5/22/2016: Minor changes to both builds, and there is now a "Build Order" section under "Items".
5/13/2016: Changes to ability order.
5/10/2016: Changed Cinderhulk build to have Bork instead of Titanic.
5/5/2016: Updated Jungle section with notes about the reworked Rift Herald, along with the new Elemental and Elder Dragons. Changed item build and runes.
5/4/2016: Updated guide to reflect the new jungle item, Bloodrazor. Added Cinderhulk as a build again. Updated ability skill order.
3/29/2016: Fixed some inconsistencies.
3/26/2016: Added zz'rot to items, changes runes and masteries.
3/23/2016: Updated suggested build, and "most recent patch changes".
2/28/16: Fixed cheatsheet masteries for 18/12/0 set up.
2/25/16: Ferocity Masteries now include Expose Weakness.
2/13/2016: Titanic Hydra is built as a core item.
2/10/2016: Switched starting items to Hunter's Talisman. Back to defensive boots as the recommended.
1/31/2016: Made a note about farsight orb. Changed the recommended boots for all devourer builds; also tweaked the guide in response to the higher CDR gain.
-1/20/2016: added notes to mastery cheatsheet about piercing thoughts vs battering blows.
-1/14/2016: Slight tweaks for the new season.
-1/03/2016: changed notes on the Rift Herald. Changed the Ferocity Masteries.
-1/01/2016: Fixed match ups.
-12/30/2015: Added "Sated Trinity" to builds.
-12/11/2015: Updated Masteries and Jungle Routes. Removed Preseason chapter.
-11/15/15: More updates for the preseason notes. Removed Zephyr. Added section about the Rift Herald in "Gameplay".
-11/13/15: Updated preseason notes. Adjusted runes.
-11/11/15: Changed masteries for preseason.
-11/2/15: Added Kindred to jungle match ups.
-10/20/15: Fixed note on Exposed Weakness; it does NOT buff your damage. Sorry about that.
-10/15/15: Changed the jungle paths section.
-10/1/15: Changed runes, we now reach 40% with the pure cdr page, and 35% with the MR page, woo! Also Dead man's Plate is the rush after Devourer now.
-8/31/15: Added match-ups to the Cinderhulk cheat sheet. Updated notes for Warmog's armor.
-8/28/15: Adjusted the Cinderhulk set up, and edited the jungle enchantment notes to describe their strengths. Adjusted main rune set up to have more attack speed. Included Dead Man's Plate to items. Set Cinderhulk to main build just so people can see the new set up, it's not necessarily better or worse than Devourer.
-8/5/15: Added a VOD in which NB3 is trying out the set up.
-7/10/15: Made runes match cheatsheet, sorry about that!
-7/9/15: Updated notes about Devourer.
-6/28/15: Changed up defense masteries due to 5.12 update.
-6/15/15: Burnout's notes now mentions the newest buff that occurred in patch 5.11. Also fixed the ability point distribution on the Devourer cheatsheet.
-6/8/15: Changed up the offensive masteries. Changed final image.
-5/26/15: Changed runes, we now have more MR all around, woo!
-5/15/15: added Black Cleaver to items.
-4/25/15: Added Skirmishers to cheat sheet.
-3/25/15: Switched back to a tank jungle guide. Also went through and fixed any inconsistencies due to past iterations of the guide.
-3/12/15: Made some changes related to Cinderhulk.
-2/26/15: Switched guide to be a Devourer build, while Juggernaut is now a secondary choice. Updated Runes and Masteries, and added notes to the cheatsheets.
-2/10/15: Removed Warrior build, added a Devourer build after much consideration.
-1/19/15: Added the Juggernaut cheatsheet. Also added jungle item enchantments to the Items section. Removed Locket of the Iron Solari from items; there are just much better choices on Shyvana for magic resist.
-1/14/15: Deleted the mini preseason chapter, and fully updated the guide for now.
-11/22/14: I have made a mini chapter about the Preseason. It will probably change as I test out more stuff. I promise I will update the entire guide eventually, I just didn't want to do a big overhaul when I'm still learning the new jungle. Thanks!
-11/13/14: Been doing a lot of updating since I've received a couple reviews; tried to be more concise and decisive in my descriptions. Also fixed up my ward map for clarity.
-09/29/14: Added a few videos! They're in the spoilers. Going over grammar and spelling, then I shall ask a few well-known people to review my guide, in hopes of more improvements.
-09/28/14: Changed up the runes, added Boots of Mobility and Boots of Swiftness. Still working on the videos.
-09/26/14: LOTS of visual updates, trying to make the guide more aesthetically pleasing. I do plan on adding some videos/gifs (not sure which) to the skills chapter, so please stay tuned :)
-09/25/14: updated tons of stuff, check it out :D
-03/18/14: added a note to "Why Focus Cooldown Reduction", and how it can help the early game.
-03/11/14: updated cheatsheets and Banshee's Veil's note. I plan on adding a section about peeling.
-03/11/14: updated cheatsheets and items.
-03/06/14: IT HAS BEEN UPDATED. And also majorly overhauled. I finally included a Gameplay section. I also decided to add in a quick cheatsheet for top lane, in case someone was wondering how I do my cooldown reduction theory up there. Take a look, comment, VOTE! Constructive criticism is always welcome :)
-12/01/13: updated items with more choices, along with cheatsheet builds- now includes a Ravenous Hydra build designed for jungle. I will no longer include top lane builds, seeing as this is a guide for jungling. If I receive enough requests to do so, I may throw it back in there in the future.
-11/29/13: added Spirit of the Ancient Golem to Items, and why I choose it over Wriggle's Lantern. Updated masteries as well, after some consideration.
-11/28/13: updated Cheat Sheets, making progress on chapters.
-11/25/13: I have not yet updated this for Season 4, since I actually haven't played any jungle Shyvana games (been messing around with stuff and One for All). I will get to this as soon as possible. Thanks :D